The Girls Next Door | TikTok, Pageants, The School Carpool Line, and EVERYTHING in Between with FogleGrill from TikTok

 Administrative assistants by day, professional dancers by lunch.

My guests today,  Stephanie Foglesong and Kayla Grill, started making TikToks every day on their lunch break. They said it's such a fun way to spend their lunch break. They have so much fun, they laugh (a lot), they move their bodies, and hope to put smiles on the faces of those who consume their content. 

Please welcome our neighbors Stephanie and Foglesong Kayla Grill!

Guest Links:
TikTok HERE
https://www.tiktok.com/@foglegrill?_t=8bTHHC71oa6&_r=1

Show Notes:
Intro and outro music developed, created, and produced by Kayla Grill
Check out her new song Strangers LIVE NOW HERE
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4jzB5C2VTtS7yGIdvi1Orl?si=tJKhsdW9RHWGQLNf28gEzQ

Got Feedback or Questions!! Be sure to reach out via email at info@scvconnected.com

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SCV Connected is brought to you by Kelly O’Keefe of SCV Connected.

Transcript

Listening

to the SCV Connected podcast with my mom 

one day we were matching, we both had on black pants and a jean shirt , and we kind of joked like, Hey, we should film a TikTok. I, I don't know about you. 

You saw one that you liked. Yes. And you were like, the only person that I know that would do this with me who's like crazy enough to do this is me, is you 

I mean, we work together. We work in the same office. Yeah. And we've been friends for like a couple years. Yes. Like we always hung out during our lunch break, we'd eat lunch together.

Mm-hmm. . 

You guys must have 

both known like a goofy side of each other.

Yes. 

Yes. We already knew we were goofy. We'd already seen that side of each other. Yes. This just gave us a platform to be goofy 

every day. It was like the perfect combination cuz we had talked about our pasts of like performing. Maybe I shouldn't say this.

No, you're fine. Please tell me. We were both in pageants growing up.   

This like breaking news. You guys were both in pageants? 

Yes, I only did like two  in high school. She had like a routine. I'm sorry, you should talk 

about your, no, like JonBenet Ramsey kind of pageants?

I did pageants through the Miss Americ organization, so that's a scholarship program. So I did that from 13 to 23 and I only retired cause I wanted to get married. You can't do Miss things if you're a Mrs'. That's 

so cool. Wait, what was 

your talent? I danced and then towards the end I tap danced . Cool.

It was so fun. It was the best time of my life. I learned so many skills that have transferred into life.  I can nail interviews for jobs now, and that's because. . They would grill us, I mean, for years. So,  we missed performing cuz that was such a, such a fun time. And yeah, they really, it pushes you.

 now Guys, I feel like I should tell you, I've done pageants too. Breaking news. Kelly O'Keefe, please tell us all the deeds. Oh my gosh. So I was such a shy kid growing up. Mm-hmm. , that my kindergarten teacher suggested it to my mom.

Like, Hey, you need to like get her On stage or do something. Oh my gosh. Outta 

comfort zone.

 So how many did you do? What were your titles? All the details. Yeah. What was your Talent 

oh my gosh. So that was just like,  JonBenet Ramsey style, like, pretty dressed, you didn't have to talk.

Yeah. But then as I grow, grew up, I did, A community pageant. Mm-hmm. . So  I was Miss Quartz 

Hill nice.  Awesome. And 

it's all about community service.  I had to go to mixers. Mm-hmm.  and like mm-hmm. , talk to adults and to network Yep.

And get sponsorships. Yeah. Yeah. And like most kids, like even nowadays, like have they talked an adult face to face? Yes. 

Mm-hmm. , like shaking a hand looking people in the eye. Yep. . They don't teach that stuff in schools, but Oh really? It's so important. So awesome. 

Yeah, so we didn't really have a talent. We had to do like a commercial for our sponsor, but 

 Yeah. Mine didn't have a talent either. Okay.  I did the,  Miss California. Teen USA. So that's like the teen one that I did. And then they have like the miss and we didn't have a talent and it kind of got knocked for not having talents. But you learned so many other skills like interviewing.

Mm-hmm. . I learned how to do my hair and makeup for the first time. Like seriously, that was like a huge skill that I. . I still don't know. I know. 

I still, maybe you, you should teach 

me. It could be just a little more calm. Not, I still want not that good. It gave me much more confidence and helped me like be in front of people and be confident in who I was and like when you're walking down the runway mm-hmm.

in like a little bikini . Yeah. Right. I'm like, okay, this is me, this is who I am and I'm like, happy with this and I'm gonna celebrate it. And it was awesome experience. 

Yeah. That impromptu question too, it teaches you you have to know who you are. Mm-hmm.  to answer the question. And I didn't realize how much, how important that was to know yourself because then Yep.

Mm-hmm. , anything that flows out Yeah. You'll be confident with, cuz you know who you are  but just like, of course owning like 

this is who I am.

Yeah. Being God 

skin and. Wow. That's so fun. That's so cool. I didn't never have that 

 That's fun. Always 

a fun connection. And then Kayla, I was like stalking you. So you put out music, you have like I 

do, yes. Yes. I've been writing music since, I mean, I don't know, I was like 10 or something, just writing like little notes and stuff in my journal.

And then,, in the last probably two or three years I.  got comfortable with who I was. Same thing with the whole pageant thing. I was like, you know what? I love my music. I'm gonna just try to figure out how to get it out on my own. All the advice I got was like, well, you need to hire a producer. You need to hire.

Mm-hmm.  an agent. You need to hire this and buy all this like equipment. And I'm like, Ugh, I just wanna do this the way I wanna do it. So I did have to buy like a microphone like this. Okay. And I just have been like working in my.  and recording in my room when I have, I call it Grill studios,  Nice. In my bedroom and 

so stop. I love that. 

That's great. Yeah. Oh my gosh. And nowadays you don't even need representation. You 

can just put it out there. I can put it on Spotify myself. So I do everything on, on my own and I'm sure I'm, if I went out and tried to do something a little more serious, I probably could, but it's so fun and so life giving.

Mm-hmm. , like, this is my project. , I did all of this. Right. And it's like a, it's a passion project, so I do it at my free time whenever I can, whenever we're not TikToking, , . So 

TikToking was be destined to happen. You guys have both been up  on stages, have you ever put something out there and been like, Ooh, like it's fun for us to do it, but like my employer might see it, or my children's.

Teacher 

or? Mm, I don't think 

so. I think one time we did pull a video because  we watched it and we heard like a, a bad word. 

 of the, Most of the  time we try and do stuff that we're, we're excited about. Mm-hmm. And that we know that most people would be excited about. Yeah. So like, we don't do anything super controversial.

Yeah. We don't like make any big stands. No. We're just kind of like, we love dancing and having. We hope you do too. Yeah. Yeah. And in the selection 

process, if we're both not like, yeah, yeah, let's do that. Yeah. Then we don't do it. So, okay. If one of us is kind of like, eh, then we just say, Nope, we're not gonna do it.

And neither of us have hard feelings. Right. Because we want us to both be a hundred percent behind whatever we, whatever we 

produce, . So take me through the steps of like, how do you content create,  are you going through  tagging things or like saving 'em and then you guys discuss together or , like just 

have a really funny process.

Yeah. But it works for us. It does a hundred percent. Stephanie finds most of the stuff that we do. So she's scrolling through TikTok finding like, when 

Stephanie, you have kids and a husband, . Hold on. Seriously, 

she's, you know, all the little free times in the car line at pickup. You know, just kind of scroll,

Yeah. I feel like you're a big, like she, it's always on your mind. I feel like you're a big pusher for content and you're like, I found this great video. She's always finding like the best stuff for us. Nice. And because 

we filmed during our lunch break, we only get. . 30 minutes. 30 minutes, yeah. Yeah. So it's not like we have time to sit.

So basically like I'll, I'll like all these videos 

and then I'll, and we have a folder that we send. We have a folder on 

TikTok on our own account. Yeah. Oh, nice. And then I'll go through and I'll put the ones like, I think these are good for today. Mm-hmm. . And so then I literally will just like set up the tripod and I'll be like, how about this one?

This one looks like 

yes. This one? No, this one. Yes. No. And within like 30 seconds we have our plan for the day. Nice. Mm-hmm. . So then we just go through, listen to it, practice a few minutes, not even a few minutes. Sometimes it's like one rehearsal, and then go, that's awesome. And we, and we've gotten better at that.

So we first started, we were doing like one to two videos a week, I think. Yeah. And then as we went on, we realized we could learn it quicker. And so we just kinda like, that's so cool. 

Sounds really nice. Do people walk by like at work and are like, oh, those girls are they're into TikTok like, sometimes 

All the time. And there's, there's even security cameras in our office and so, and we're friends with like the people up in the security office, so when we go up there, they're like, Hmm, your girls had a harder time with that dance today.

Huh? . That's true. They 

should film like bloopers.  

always. They probably could probably. 

And sometimes we'll go to our filming spot and someone will be having a meeting there and we're like, ah, . Or 

they'll be having their lunch there or like, we're like, okay, we'll go somewhere 

else. 

So thankfully where we work is beautiful, so there's tons of really fun, filming locations.

Yeah. So we'll just have to find.  different spots, but it's like we should just reserve that every day from, 

it's kinda fun, like finding new places, but it can be hard if there's like meetings or, 

okay. But TikTok has kind of a bad rap. It could be mm-hmm. , raunchy, or it could be fun like mm-hmm. , lighthearted like you stuff you guys put out.

Do you ever have employees that might not understand TikTok but just hear like, oh, they're into TikTok. Like, what are they doing? Or like, do you get like the eye rolls kind of, or anything? Or people understanding? We 

actually just made a TikTok about that. . Oh, did you? Okay. Because some of our coworkers aren't on TikTok or like, don't, like you said, don't really understand it.

Or like, oh, that's like a kid thing. Yeah. Or like it's a weird thing. Mm-hmm. . And so we'll be like showing them our videos cuz they see us around with the tripod and so we're like, oh, here, look at this funny, cool thing we did. Or they ask us, what did you do when we're showing them and they. Oh, cause we're on screen, like, yeah, yeah.

Like doing dance poses and. Okay, great. . 

Well, and I think with the way TikTok works, like there's just trends and so even though it makes, it makes no sense, everybody who's on TikTok knows that you just do that trend. Yeah. Okay. So when you show someone who's not on TikTok, they're like, oh, why did you do it?

Where did you go? Put 

that sound. Yeah. Yeah. Did you make 

First Voice? Is that, did you make that dance up? And it's like, well, no, you have to kind of explain what TikTok is. And then they're just like, cool, 

cool, cool. Do they assume like you're just scrolling at work and trying to figure this out, or, no, I don't.

Cause you guys just put your phone away and you're not. So, 

yeah, our bosses are super supportive. Like they'll ask us like, how is, how is recording today? Got some good ones. How many likes you got? Yeah, they're, yeah, they're 

super support. They're very, very supportive. We actually have them in a video that we did The Tortilla challenge.

Yes. Oh my God. For those on TikTok , it's where you basically don't, you hit them with the . 

Hilarious. You hit your, 

you were gonna do it cuz it was trending and, and we were. We should have our bosses do it. And so we told them about it and they were like, they were honored. They onboard and they were like, well, we'll definitely do this.

You guys have a 

good following though. I'd be honored too. Like a lot of people are watching you guys. 

Aw, thank you. We're very selective. Yeah. With like guests that we have on, we don't really ever do guests. Mm-hmm. . So we're very 

Oh my God. Yeah. Cuz when you have a guest on, they represent you ultimately.

So we're just really careful with that. 

Yeah. But it's fun. What's the future of this? Like? What do you hope?  To do with it. Like are you putting out joy and light and like good clean content to TikTok? Yes. And that's just always been your plan? Mm-hmm. ? Or do you hope like we're gonna get discovered we're like 40 minutes outside of Los Angeles, like

I mean, one could only . . 

I think our goal is fun. Like we wanna have fun. Mm-hmm. .  during your lunch break, you could just say, need your lunch or you can move your body. And so 

we Yes. That's a big thing. Yes. Getting up and moving around because helped so much. We rarely 

leave filming like, ugh. Like we usually leave pumped.

Mm-hmm.  and like so excited. Mm-hmm. . And so our goal is have fun and we hope that those who view our videos are also enjoying what they see and are having fun. 

And that they would like get up on their lunch break and Yeah. Do a dance too. I don't know. And if Yeah. Happen to 

go. Oh, well, great. Too , 

you're like, sorry, boss, I'm not coming back.

Yes. Interesting. Oh my gosh. No, but that's true. You're dancing and moving, you're laughing. I'm sure it's hilarious. And then you're,  doing a hobby together. So that's good. 

And your best friend. Early on when we were dancing a lot, we would come back into the office like sweat sweaty because we were just dancing way more and like learning intense dance moves.

I feel like some of the dances 

we learned were like solid 30 seconds 

of dancing. Yeah. And so we're like, especially with moments with like the high kicks, we'd have to, you guys get animated 

and you're into it. 

So we come back really tired. 

 Oh, that's so fun. I have so many questions still.

 Stephanie, I know you have kids. Mm-hmm. , do you ever wonder like, okay, am I putting myself out there or my family or what if my kid's, the next president, and there's all this content of them?

I think 

we're just very selective, I would say. Okay. Yeah. , we do the best to protect ourselves yeah. And, and my girls do sometimes do TikTok videos on my personal account, but again, I'm extremely selective Yeah.

Of what they do, the motions they're doing. Mm-hmm. , or even what that TikTok represents on the platform itself. Like maybe it.  fine just from face value, but like what are the other people doing with that TikTok?  So I'm very careful with that.  But I would say that we're just very selective and  we really think through the words and like what everyone else is doing on that particular 

trend.

Yeah. I wouldn't say, I'm too worried about like what, what our, our videos are like going to, because you said we're very selective. Mm-hmm. . And so everything that we put out. Has to be  on our standard, it has to be positive. It has to be fun. Mm-hmm. .  It has to be clean.  Have 

you ever met someone  at the store or just like in the school pickup, like area that feels like they know you more like the silly side of you and then you're like, because I feel like Stephanie, I know you from school Cause our kids have kids

And I'm like, I have never seen this side of Stephanie . That's hilarious. It's so funny. I 

like, I know you more from TikTok. It's hilarious about your personality and 

like that's how we are too, I think. Oh yeah. You just see me in mom mood. 

Yeah. I do rarely see me in like, Freestyle or free, you know? Yeah.

Like having fun. Yeah. I saw someone, this weekend I was somewhere , 

and he came up to me and we, we know each other,  from something else, but I had never met him. he knew who I was. He was like, ah, I know you from TikTok. And I was like, yeah. And then my husband came over and I was like, he said he recognized me from

Texted you later. Yep. Yep. But anyway, I don't, other 

than that, that's always so fun. That's happened like twice where someone, like around the office who I don't know. Mm-hmm. . . I actually do know you. I follow you on TikTok. Yeah. I'm like, like, oh. 

So TikTok has that feature now where you can see who's looking at your videos.

Mm-hmm. . Do you guys like do that too? And you're like, oh, that's funny. Like so and so from 

like a degree of separation is like, it is funny. Like I try to go outta my way to follow like people from my circle. Okay. Same. To be like, Hey, you should follow us. Mm-hmm. , like, I know you . Yeah, I know 

you're watching.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's so fun. 

what surprised you the most with like content planning? Is it harder than you think it is? Like, I don't know about you, but for me, I did not wanna learn TikTok for the longest time.

I was like, I know Instagram, I just learned Instagram reels. Yeah. Mm-hmm. , TikTok seemed like this whole other like editing situation going on. 

I think editing, I've never like edited like that before. Okay.  Like post-production, I've edited like my music, but that's just audio.

It's not like visual. Mm-hmm. . So I think that was surprising. It took certain videos take longer. Mm-hmm. , that was surprising early on.  But I feel like editing on TikTok is like really easy. They, they, it's super easy. Have like so many tools for you to use. Mm-hmm. . So especially like we film on the app, edit on the app.

I think it's really fun. 

I feel like you were more the editor in the beginning. Yeah. Cause I just felt like I didn't know TikTok very well.  I had just like, basically looked at videos, but I had never produced any of my own stuff.

She's got mad editing skills. She's 

way better than me.  I got an associate's degree in,  media. So, Editing experience. Okay. I originally went to school to be a news anchor. That's actually what I wanted to do full-time. And then, oh, 

so she's very comfortable in this 

setting

oh, yes. Okay. Take 

over .  I went to school for radio, television,  production. And  I would say like a year ago,  or maybe like a six months ago, I started working with the editing and it kind of, It took me back to the old days and I actually love it now.

It's really easy. I mean, obviously it would be easier if you were not just like using your hand, like your finger on your phone. Yeah. Right. Obviously it's easier when you can use like a final cut or something, you know, with the mouse and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. But, 

 The types of videos that we're doing that are like, you know, 15, 30 seconds, it's like boom, boom, done.

Yeah. But I just kind of scratch a itch and didn't realize it was there. Yeah. Like I miss editing. Doing that kind of stuff . 

 I can relate.  Even podcast editing, it's become quite creative.  

I'll start editing. I like get lost. Do you really? I'm like, oh, I didn't even, like, yeah. I was just, I'm so into it and it's so fun. Oh yeah. That like, all of a sudden I'm like, oh, 

it's the best time. 

Yeah. It's good. Cause it just shows that you like love it and you're passionate about it and you, it kind of like, you don't realize that you just escaped like Yeah. For 

the last few minutes. That's true. Yeah. 

 Okay. So what would you say to someone that maybe wants to grab their best friend and start doing TikToks 

a hundred percent Do it. Do it. Do it. You will not regret it. Yeah. It's like we have, you have nothing to lose.

Mm-hmm.  because, . It's just so much fun. It really is fun. Especially if you have a good like partner to do it with. Yeah. Where we like, we're not embarrassed to like do crazy stuff in front of each other. And so that's helped. Like I was not on TikTok before we did ours. I don't think I had a personal account.

Mm-hmm. . Oh wow. So she was like, we should do this, this thing called TikTok. And I'm like, what? So we did it and I was like, I would never have done that by myself. But because we were like doing these crazy dances, like our first dance. I get whiplash just like watching it cause like it's just like insane.

And so now that we are doing our TikTok and like dancing in front of like people too who are like walking by. Yeah. Scary. Yeah. How 

comfortable you get just dancing in the 

middle and like talking to a camera. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And now I have my own personal TikTok. Mm-hmm. . And you have your own personal one.

Mm-hmm. . And so we just like, 

do you ever get like self-conscious about what other people think of you like, oh, she's a vain. She likes to be in front of the camera and like see herself all day long and dance. 

Or I think, yes, a little bit. Mm-hmm. . But at the same time, like, we're having so much fun.

Yeah. Okay. I don't even like that. That thought does cross my mind, but I'm like, eh, I think you think we're weird Then . I don't know. Dunno. I think like 

at 

the end of the day, I. Our intentions. Our intentions isn't to be vain  it's just for fun and a creative outlet for us. And so I think like they might think that, but that's really not what's happening and we're cautious to that not happening and 

What about like adding filters and there's so many things you can do to like change 

your, that's a really good Yes. We actually do a thing called Filter Friday. That's true. Where on Fridays we'll post, like, we'll test out a bunch of filters. Okay. Not so much like the beauty filters. The beauty, yeah.

More like 

silly ones. 

Like makes your face look like a dog or something. . Okay. Tell me what fruit I am or something like. And we also, like we never do filter. We filters. We never do like beauty filters on our like regular videos. Yeah. The only time we'll do a filter is if it's kind of fun or silly or a part of the trend.

Yeah. I think accidentally we did one that made us look like really tan. Yeah. . There was 

one that I was like after I was editing it and I realized there was something weird going on with our cheeks and I think it was like a fr. Yeah. And I was like, oh, cuz sometimes you'll use a trend and there's already a filter attached to it and you don't realize it until you're recording and you're like, why do I look so good?

Or like, oh, that's why. 

Yeah. Yeah. That can be so addicting. I was just like reading about that, how like you get used to your face looking a certain way. Filters healthy. Yeah. And then you look in the mirror or like people see you in person and you're like that's That's the same. 

Yeah. So we don't use 

those.

Yeah. We tried very hard. If we ever did, it was usually on accident. . 

Yeah. On accident. There is one. Yeah. It's the butterfly dance one that we did. Oh yes. And. Both wearing like white shirts. She looks so tan and we look so tan in the background. It's just very blue and I'm watching it. What is, why do we look so 

good?

you look great. Oh, filter. Oh, wish. I love filters. . 

They're fun. They can be really fun. They can be fun. So 

I love to play with them, but I don't like to see them on other people. Mm-hmm. , like, I wanna know the real person. Right. So, right. . It's so addicting. . Yeah. It can be. Mm-hmm. . It's that layer of like self-preservation too.

Like you can protect yourself mm-hmm.  and become someone 

else and, mm-hmm. . I like the ones that have,  like lashes. Yes. So if I'm like not wearing makeup and I want to like record, like on my personal account, I wanna like, make a video of me talking about something, but I'm like, ugh. . I'm not gonna like go do a full face of makeup or this, I'll just like little tiny 

lashes.

 Not the ones that like change the like shape of your face, but like a lashes can be helpful sometimes.

Yeah. . Oh my gosh, 

Okay. , where's this gonna go guys? Are you gonna keep making tos as long as you're working together? Yeah. What happens if you're not working together? Like we don't 

think of those things. Talk about that. I 

mean, neither of us have any intentions of leaving the job.  As of right now.

 We're both very 

happy.  Do you guys see a career in entertainment at all? Is this gonna like lead into other things? , 

we've always said kind of like jokingly that like, we could do this one time. Yeah, we could definitely do like TikTok full-time or like social media or content creation, like full-time.

Yeah. But that has to kind of like 

fall into our lives. So if there's like a local sponsor that wants you to highlight their product and TikTok, like, would you do that? Oh yeah. Yeah. Wait, 

wait. I think we would Quick meeting. Yes, we would. Obviously we would assist through. Product is and make sure it's like on brand for us and all that kind of stuff.

But we've always said like, we're just gonna have fun and keep doing what we're doing. If something became a bit awesome, yeah. But if something like falls 

into our laps, then we'll do it.  

Like SCV Connected. 

We've actually talked about that, like doing our own podcast, but Oh, oh my gosh. You guys 

should that we would love that.

You should totally do. All you need is a microphone. You guys could talk about everything. Oh my gosh. Yeah. 

Would you ever put your kids in pageants? Would you let them do it? 

 I don't know. I would say . It's funny that you say that cuz my husband and I talk about that.

Okay. Like we just joke about it. I think pageants have changed a ton since I did them and I'm not so sure if the intentions of them are a scholarship organization.  So I don't know. It would have to be something.  that they would come to me and want to do on their own. Mm-hmm. . Um, that's what happened with me.

I actually, I grew up watching the Miss America pageant every year. Like I got to stay up late. Mm-hmm. , the whole family watched it. Oh my gosh. Yes. He was like the Super Bowl of our house. Like same. 

I love it. , my mom and I had like stay up late watching it. Yes, yes. Who do you 

gonna win or, exactly. Yeah. Like I would always call the winner by the, the introduction.

That was always the joke. And so anyway, one day I came to my parents and I'm diabetic and they're that year, Miss America. , Nicole Johnson was diabetic and I was like, well, she can do it. I can do it. And so I like begged my parents and they're like, well, we'll see. Well, I kept being very persistent, did all the research like, you know, went online and found like the meeting place and all that kind of stuff.

 And so my parents kind of didn't have a choice cuz I was like, here's where the meeting is, here's the address, here's when we need to be there. Yeah. And so they're like, okay. And then, Did it. I showed up in a sundress. Wow. And skate shoes. Like I didn't even look like any of the other 

girls.

This is like a movie story. I know. 

This is like, 

tell me more. Yeah, right. I won't go on it on, but I like, I did one pageant. I did terrible. Like it was, I look back, I have the video of it and it's like, whew, that was rough. But I.  came out of it like, I wanna do better next year. And so every year I just got better and better until I finally started winning.

But,  if either of my girls came to me and they, they really felt passionate about doing a pageant, then we would, we would have it be a topic of conversation in the house and kind of investigate their hearts and see why they wanted to do it.

Right. And then, and 

then it maybe, I think we're aligned. I think for the longest time though, I had told my husband, I was like, they will never do that. . Mm-hmm. , but. Like you said, like if they wanted it would depend on their heart posture of it. Exactly. Like did they wanna seek it out and do it for Yeah.

Scholarship opportunities. Mm-hmm.  or to make friends or to Yes. Do something impactful with the platform. Okay. And if they were like leading the charge, but.  to put my kid in like a JonBenet Ramsey situation when they're little. Yeah. Like you dress them with makeup. Yeah. That's like absolutely 

not. The scholarships I won from doing pageants, paid for my degree at C O C.

 Paid for books and it paid for my degree, so it's, I couldn't have paid for it. Awesome. Otherwise, yeah, so there is awesome opportunities in pageants or I think Miss America Organization is one of the number one scholarship providing opportunity for women, 

so, wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's great.

That's great. Would you, Kayla, if you had. Let them, I 

don't know. I think same thing. If they really wanted to, I think that would be fun. I'd probably just call Stephanie and be like, what should I do? Yeah, right. Where do I start? Sift through all of our old pageant gear. Oh gosh. 

Oh, wish. Have your kids ever seen like your crowns or 

sass or anything?

So my aunt just found this book at my grandma's house. It's like this little book. It's my senior pictures. Ooh. And in there, of course, I had to include my crown in my senior pictures because,  

and I show you, wait, you wore to your, your crown, your senior pictures? 

Well, for senior pictures we had like, we had multiple outfit changes.

Oh, okay. Okay. , I was like, your yearbook crown, you know, you had your black shirt and 

then you had your, like you could wear an outfit that represents you or whatever. I, I went to a small private school, so this might not be the norm for everybody. Anyway, we did one shoot where I had like a gown in my crown and so they saw that and they were like, do you still have that?

And I. I do. Oh, do you wanna see it? And so I showed him and they were like, wow, you are a queen. I'm like, eh, not a queen. . 

That's so cool. 



It's so funny. It's like larger than life for kids to see that kind of stuff. Your parents like, I 

mean, think back to when you were a kid. I remember the first time I saw like a pageant girl with 

a crown on. It was like, I remember seeing my mom's like high school prom pictures and I. 

That's amazing. Yeah. Oh, okay.

Podcast guys. I think you guys can do this. I dunno if we have 

time. 30 minute lunch break. 15 minute, like 15 minutes for TikTok. 15 minutes for podcasts. It's not 

a terrible idea. Yeah, no. And we can get you guys some local sponsors. All right. There you go. I'm gonna cheer you guys on. You guys got this? 

 

 Are you still doing music 

song coming out the before the summer. Wait, tell us about 'em. One. One is called Strangers. Okay. Other one is called Fun. 

Is it like a Taylor Swifty vibe?

It's kind of more like singer songwriter,  alternative, not very produced.

Kind of like folky. Type of vibe. One of 'em is like really, really sad strangers. Just like really, really sad. But 

um, I may or may not have already heard it. Oh yeah, you 

have and it's fantastic.  Are these based on two events?

Two stories, two things. You've gone 

through. Partial. Most of the time when I'm writing I'll like, I'll experience something and I'll be like, oh, that's actually could be a really good song. But then when I start writing it, I'm like, hmm, I'm gonna have to pull from like stuff that I haven't experienced for this song to come to like completion, I guess.

So partially everything comes from somewhere True and then I.  extrapolate from there. But yeah, strangers is coming out first. Probably really sad, but  it's kinda like story, story, 

a little journey I feel like. 

And then fun everyone can relate to. I 

really.

You think so? I think so, 

yeah. Aw. Hopefully that's the goal. And then other song is fun and it's really fun. , I think, and it's really cute. It's kind of silly. I wanted to write a song that was like kinda like whimsical about just like the best parts of being in a relationship,  the fun parts and like the like little tiny details of just like sitting on the couch and being. 

 Did you grow up in musical families? Like did you grow up playing music because you also teach choir, so I'm like, I do. Yes. Where 

did this come from? I grew up, everyone in my family, we were all athletes, so we played soccer.  I went to like basketball camp.  My dad was always my soccer coach and my mom was like the team mom, and she like made the like,  the goodie bags.

Yeah, the goodie bags for everyone. So cute. And then when I was super young, my mom was like, she's musical. I need to  get her in some type of class so I took piano lessons all throughout. Elementary high school. I majored in music education in college and I've been doing music like forever.

 Both my parents extremely supportive even though they're not musical at all. They always supporting 

me. They like, you're going to school for music? Like, what's 

the game plan? Are you gonna pay for this? I went to the same school that my parents went to the same college.

Okay. And they were athletes there, . They went there and played on sports teams and then when I went there I did music and so they. Yes, , but again, very supportive, like at all my recitals and everything, so it's really nice.  Hmm. Can I ask you a question? Yeah. You can always ask. Yeah. How did you get like insert in this podcast?

Like what inspired this podcast? 

 That's a really good question. I've not really talked about that a lot, but I was a working professional before Covid  and just had to defined  myself with like, I'm gonna be a career mom. Drop the kids off and leave.  And then Covid really put a halt to that, and I was at home and my identity was my career, and I didn't realize how much of my identity.

was wrapped up in my career, and so my neighbor had taught a podcasting class and I learned more about her from her podcast than I did from seeing her.

 Just in community.  on the neighborhood. And  that's so interesting.  I felt like podcasting was a way to. Break down that barrier  that filter if you will.  I can be on social media thinking, I know you guys mm-hmm.  , but interviewing you and getting to know your heart is so much different.

 And I love that. Cause 

then you can bring 'em in here and actually get to know them. Hear from and get deep . 

Yeah, totally. I listen podcasting cuz it's like a very focused conversation. Yes, true. And I love listening to podcasts too.

I have like a billion that I listen to. Mm-hmm. . And so coming here and doing this with you, I'm like, why are you doing this? How are you doing this? 

This is so cool. So there's like so many layers to it. Yeah. I mean just in that you see like the layer of like career. , you know? Mm-hmm.  wrapped up in my identity, but then also Santa Clarita for me, like my husband has thrived here, like he loves what he does.

Yeah. We were never gonna move and we had met in college and I always thought like, . The world's our oyster. Yeah. Where are we gonna go? Yeah. And Santa CLA had everything on paper and I just never, even though it was like a great place to raise a family, I never had that sense of community that like is almost promised.

Mm-hmm. Yes. By looking at it, yes. You really have to like have some responsibility and like going out and. , like creating that or nurturing it. Mm-hmm. . And it's exhausting. It's handed to you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.  I  kind of thought like this would be handed to, to me in terms of the community aspect.

Mm-hmm. . And it's there. It's there for the taking, but you have to work at it. Yeah. You have to. Yeah. So 

is this podcast you like, Taking it like going out. 

It is. And yeah, I've mentioned before like it's kind of like a love letter to community. Like, aw, it's my struggle in a way. But like giving back in the sense of like, I know I'm 

not alone.

I love how you're like, this is my struggle and then I'm just gonna go to the max thing that I can do. Podcast podcasting. That is it. Not like I'm gonna join like a mom, girl, I'm gonna join, I'm gonna start a podcast and I'm 

gonna bring in my own guests. Like, good for you. I love that. That's amazing. . 

So I have a question.  We just like turn this on, like we're gonna interview you now.

What do your kids think of this? Do they understand? Do they think it's cool watching their mom do this? 

 I think they have a vague idea  they love a microphone. It's so funny how every little kid, oh my gosh, yes.

Loves a microphone. They'll go in my office and they'll take like the  microphone and they're just like singing  so they love that part of it. Think they understand it fully because there are times where like, I have to give up going to Magic Mountain with a family so I can stay at home and edit and yeah.

Yes. Just like little things I have to say no to. So sometimes it's. How come mommy doesn't wanna go or, yeah. But today I was like, oh mom, you're gonna record You have a podcast. Mm-hmm.  to record.  That's so cool. I put them on it like in the intro and Oh, fun stuff. So they'll introduce the 

episode.

Oh, that's amazing. Thank you. So they feel like a part of it. And today they know 

Miss Kayla, so they're like, oh my gosh, you're interviewing Miss Kayla. 

Oh, that's so,  



I like how, um, in one. . One of your bios I read, I don't know if it was on Instagram or somewhere else you said that. My whole goal in this is to let people know that we really aren't that different.

 We all want community. We all need community. Yeah. Right. And I really liked that. I was like, yeah, we are all like, , we might not agree on everything, but we're all, we're all here doing this thing, like living in the same . Yeah. City. Same thing. And maybe we're not all so 

different, so it is easier to see our differences versus like the similarities and Yes.

Mm-hmm. , we all want a safe community, right? We all wanna be seen and cheered for and Yeah. You know, make a difference in the world and, . I love highlighting that. So I'm like, if I make it the podcast about other people more , then I'll get in 

trouble. . 

That's pretty smart. It's actually really, yeah. That's really smart.

Oh 

my gosh. So good to talk to people. 

That's so fun. Yeah, it is. Yeah, and it does plant the seed of like, okay, we've gotten to know each other. Mm-hmm.  like on a different level, so totally. 

Totally no mores, like small talk . And now I know that we all did patching . 

Yeah, for sure.  📍 Well, thanks so much for being here.

And go ahead and plug where can we find you? Follow us on 

TikTok. At Fogal Grill. Okay. Almost every day you'll, you'll catch us,  dancing  on our lunch break. Lunch break. 

Thank you so much for having us.  

So fun. Oh my gosh, ladies, it was a pleasure.  I . Appreciate 

it.

Thanks for listening to the SCV Connected podcast with my mom, Kelly O'Keefe.

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